Refinery news roundup: Shipments halted in Japan on strong typhoon

In the Asia-Pacific region, spring and summer maintenance in Japan had finished but autumn works were starting.

Over the past few weeks, storms have affected refinery loadings in Japan. This week, shipments from Japanese refineries are likely to be disrupted on the approach of a strong typhoon Jebi. Japan’s Cosmo Oil on Tuesday halted waterborne oil product shipments at all its three refineries, in Sakai, Yokkaichi and Chiba. Throughout August, shipments were also disrupted by typhoons.

Separately, China’s National Development and Reform Commission will award a 2.8 million mt/year crude import quota to Lianhe Petrochemical, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. The 4.2 million mt/year Lianhe Petrochemical, based in Shandong province, plans to mothball four crude distillation units totaling 2.8 million mt/year in order to obtain the quotas.

Meanwhile, PetroChina’s 9 million mt/year Liaoyang Petrochemical refinery in northeastern Liaoning province, which last month started up a 3.5 million mt/year crude distillation unit after idling for years, has slowly ramped up crude throughput at the CDU.

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

— Indian state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd.’s refinery at Kochi in the southern state of Kerala is operating normally after an accident that killed one contractual work at the weekend, company officials said. The accident took place Sunday morning at an FCC unit when a heat exchanger cover was opened for maintenance work and fell on two workers, killing one and injuring the other. The refinery has two FCC units. The accident took place at the larger unit.

— Japan’s largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy plans to shut the sole 127,500 b/d crude distillation unit at its Wakayama refinery from late September to early November for scheduled maintenance.

— Japan’s largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy said that it plans to shut the 150,000 b/d No. 4 crude distillation unit at its 270,000 b/d Negishi refinery early September to mid-October for scheduled maintenance.

— India’s state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd planned to close the Bina refinery for 45 days from mid-August to carry out a capacity expansion program, company officials said. A complete shutdown of the refinery, located in central India, had previously been planned from mid-September. The shutdown period would start from August 17. Almost a month ahead of the scheduled start to the turnaround period, company officials said that it had been taken offline after a minor fire broke in the refinery earlier this month. After the turnaround, the refinery’s capacity will be raised to 7.8 million mt/year, or 156,000 b/d, by the end of 2018. BPCL runs the current 120,000 b/d refinery under the Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd. joint venture. BPCL and Oman Oil hold 50:50 stakes in BORL. Bina has a 6 million mt/year crude distillation unit, a 1.95 million mt/year hydrocracker unit, a 1.63 million mt diesel hydrotreater, a 1.36 million mt/year delayed coker unit and other units.

— Vietnam’s Nghi Son refinery was shut in mid-August, due to an electric generator fault, which led to the shutdown of the power supply system at the refinery, a the company said. Meanwhile, “the refinery is in process of restarting the units which will take time,” a spokesman told S&P Global Platts. The start of Nghi Son refinery earlier this year has reduced Vietnam’s dependence on oil imports to meet its domestic fuel demand. Before Nghi Son, the 140,000 b/d Dung Quat, supplied only about 30% of the country’s oil product requirements.

— India’s Reliance Industries Ltd expects no major impact on its refining business due to a short-run shutdown at a secondary unit — a fluid catalytic cracking unit — at its Jamnagar refinery complex from late August, company officials said. RIL’s Jamnagar complex has two independent crude oil refineries, each with several secondary processing units, including the shutdown FCCU. On August 15, RIL declared force majeure on gasoline exports from its export-oriented Jamnagar refinery, with a shutdown of one of the two FCC units for about two weeks, trade sources said. The company said the secondary unit was undergoing a short shutdown to assure the reliability and integrity of operations.

— State-owned Indian Oil Corp has shut a diesel hydro-desulfurization unit at its Gujarat refinery in western India for maintenance and upgrade work, company officials said Thursday. The 28-day shutdown began on August 14 with the unit’s capacity set to be raised by around a quarter to 2.2 million mt/year. The turnaround schedule was revised from an earlier plan of a 45-day shutdown starting from May 15. The refinery’s hydrocracking unit and an atmospheric distillation unit are also undergoing maintenance from August 14 to September 10. The main aim of the shutdown is to produce Bharat Stage VI compliant diesel at the west coast refinery.

— Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s refinery in Mumbai has been running normally with no disruption in the supply of petroleum products after a fire in early August, company officials said. A fire broke out at the compressor shed of the hydrocracker unit. The fire was completely extinguished.

— State-owned PetroChina’s 10 million mt/year Daqing Petrochemical facility in northeastern Heilongjiang province started a 45-day scheduled maintenance period from August 1. The refinery last carried out a full maintenance in June 2015. The plant, which is located in Daqing city close to the Daqing oil field, mainly processes Daqing crude as feedstock. Daqing now mainly operates a 6.5 million mt/year crude distillation unit, along with its 1.2 million mt/year ethylene plant. It is likely to restart in mid-September.

— Japan’s Taiyo Oil has restarted in August the No. 1 and No. 2 crude distillation units at its sole 138,000 b/d Kikuma refinery in western Japan, after completing scheduled maintenance, a company spokesman said. It restarted the 106,000 b/d No. 1 CDU on August 12, followed by the restart of the 32,000 b/d No. 2 CDU on August 14, after completing maintenance, the spokesman said.

EXISTING ENTRIES

— PetroChina targets to start production from its upgraded Huabei Petrochemical facility in October, according to its website. The expansion and upgrade project, which completed construction at the end of June, doubles the refinery’s capacity to 10 million mt/year with a new 5 million mt/year CDU. It also added a 3.4 million mt/year residual hydrocracker, a 2.9 million mt/year vacuum gasoil hydrocracker, as well as a 1.3 million mt/year continuous reformer. Huabei Petrochemical has been shut since the end of June for scheduled maintenance. Following the expansion, Huabei Petrochemical will be able to produce 2.9 million mt/year of gasoline, 3.65 million mt/year of gasoil, and 1.7 million mt/year of jet fuel, the company said on its website.

— Taiwan’s state-owned CPC said repair works and the targeted restart date of the 30,000 b/d No.2 diesel hydrodesulfurizer at Taoyuan have been pushed to around the fourth quarter of this year, later than the May time frame that was initially provided.

— JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy plans to shut its crude distillation units (No. 2 CDU at 90,200 b/d capacity and No.3 CDU at 90,000 b/d capacity) at the Mizushima B plant at its refinery in Mizushima for annual maintenance from the end of September 2018 to early November.

— Malaysia’s Hengyuan Refining Company planned to shut its Port Dickson refinery for a full turnaround between August and October 2018. The company would conduct the tie-in of a new 1.15 million mt/year hydrodesulfurizer.

— China’s CNOOC Huizhou plans maintenance for around 40 days starting in October 2018.

— State-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) plans to shut its Fujian Refining and Chemical Co. refinery for more than 50 days of scheduled maintenance in November-December 2018.

— Japan’s JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy will suspend production of petrochemicals and oil products at the Muroran plant in Hokkaido March 31, 2019, and turn the facility into a refined products terminal from April.

— Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd plans maintenance at its Vizag refinery for secondary units as well as the three crude distillation units for three-four weeks in July-September 2019.

— HPCL plans to shut its Mumbai refinery for four weeks in Q1, 2020 to revamp the motor spirit block.

— Vietnam’s Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical expects production at Dunq Quat to fall to 5.57 million mt in 2020 due to planned maintenance of around two months. Production is expected to be about 5.67 million mt in 2021 because BSR plans to shut the refinery for two months to connect the facility with an expansion project.

UPGRADES

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

— India’s state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd planned to close the Bina refinery for 45 days from mid-August to carry out a capacity expansion program, company officials said. A complete shutdown of the refinery, located in central India, had previously been planned from mid-September. The shutdown period would start from August 17. Almost a month ahead of the scheduled start to the turnaround period, company officials said that it had been taken offline after a minor fire broke in the refinery earlier this month. After the turnaround, the refinery’s capacity will be raised to 7.8 million mt/year, or 156,000 b/d, by the end of 2018. BPCL runs the current 120,000 b/d refinery under the Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd. joint venture. BPCL and Oman Oil hold 50:50 stakes in BORL. Bina has a 6 million mt/year crude distillation unit, a 1.95 million mt/year hydrocracker unit, a 1.63 million mt diesel hydrotreater, a 1.36 million mt/year delayed coker unit and other units.

— State-owned Indian Oil Corp has shut a diesel hydro-desulfurization unit at its Gujarat refinery in western India for maintenance and upgrade work, company officials said Thursday. The 28-day shutdown began on August 14 with the unit’s capacity set to be raised by around a quarter to 2.2 million mt/year. The turnaround schedule was revised from an earlier plan of a 45-day shutdown starting from May 15. The refinery’s hydrocracking unit and an atmospheric distillation unit are also undergoing maintenance from August 14 to September 10. The main aim of the shutdown is to produce Bharat Stage VI compliant diesel at the west coast refinery.

— South Korea’s smallest refiner Hyundai Oilbank started August works to expand its crude distillation units that would increase its refining capacity to 650,000 b/d from 560,000 b/d currently. “The works started on Aug. 10 and are expected to complete in mid-September,” a company official told S&P Global Platts. “During the works, No. 1 CDU with a capacity of 120,000 b/d will be shut for maintenance,” he said. Once the works are completed, No. 1 CDU will expand to 160,000 b/d, the official said, noting No. 2 CDU with 310,000 b/d will also get expanded to 360,000 b/d. The No. 2 CDU will not shut for the works, the official said. As Hyundai Oilbank’s Hyundai Chemical joint venture runs a 130,000 b/d condensate splitter at the Daesan complex, south of Seoul, the company’s total refining capacity will increase to 650,000 b/d. The capacities of No. 1 CDU and No. 2 CDU had long been at 110,000 b/d and 280,000 b/d, but they have been gradually upgraded to expand to 120,000 b/d and 310,000 b/d, recently. “The works also include improving our heavy oil upgraders whose capacity will increase to 211,000 b/d from 165,000 b/d currently,” the official said. The official also said Hyundai Oilbank has just completed mechanical construction of its new solvent deasphalting (SDA) unit at the Daesan complex, which is scheduled to begin commercial operations in mid-September. The 80,000 b/d SDA unit will produce more low sulfur gasoil that would meet tougher global rules on shipping fuel, according to the official.

EXISTING ENTRIES

— Petron plans to expand and upgrade its Limay, Bataan refinery, increasing its capacity by 55% to produce 75,000 b/d of refined products and 1 million mt/year of aromatics, Honeywell said in a statement. There was no timeline for when the expansion will take place. The refinery’s capacity will be increased by 100,000 b/d of condensates and light crude oils to produce aromatics and automotive fuels, Honeywell said. The Bataan refinery currently has a capacity of 180,000 b/d. According to previous information, Petron Corp. has been reviewing plans to expand the capacity of its Bataan refinery. Work on the expansion was expected to begin in 2018 and finish by 2019.

— PetroChina’s Daqing Petrochemical facility in northeastern Heilongjiang in early July started an upgrading project aimed at enabling it to provide feedstock for its 1.2 million mt/year ethylene plant, while cutting gasoil output. The project includes setting up about nine units, including a 90,000 mt/year MTBE unit, a 220,000 mt/year alkylation unit, a 1.2 million mt/year continuous reformer unit, a 2 million mt/year FCC unit, a 600,000 mt/year gas fractionator, a 500,000 mt/year gasoline desulfurizer and two 20,000 mt/year sulfur recovery units. Three units will also be upgraded, including a 3.5 million mt/year CDU, a 1.2 million mt/year hydrocracker, and a 1.2 million mt/year gasoil hydrogenation unit. Among those units, the MTBE and alkylation units will be completed in August, while the upgrading of the hydrocracker will be finished in early September when the main maintenance period ends. The upgrade project will see the facility’s gasoil and gasoline ratios drop to around 0.74:1, according to PetroChina’s statement.

— An expansion plan is underway to increase the production capacity of Thailand’s Bangchak Petroleum refinery to 140,000 b/d by 2020, from 120,000 b/d currently, a company spokeswoman said. After the expansion, the refinery would have more flexibility in its production of diesel and gasoline production while the production of fuel oil is expected to be reduced.

— South Korea’s SK Innovation will build a 40,000 b/d heavy upgrader at Ulsan by 2020, which will produce 34,000 b/d of 0.5% sulfur fuel oil and 6,000 b/d of gasoil.

— HPCL’s $3.2 billion project to expand Vizag’s 8.3 million mt/year capacity to 15 million mt/year is scheduled to be completed by March 2020.

— State-owned Indian Oil Corp. has signed up energy technology and infrastructure solutions provider CB&I for a residue upgrading unit at its Mathura refinery in north India.

— IOC is exploring an option to build a petroleum coke gasification plant at its Paradip refinery on India’s east coast. IOC’s $2.3 billion expansion project for the refinery to raise its overall capacity to 18 million mt/year (360,000 b/d) by 2020 from 13.7 million mt/year is on schedule.

— Indian Oil Corp. plans to raise the capacity of its Panipat refinery to 25 million mt/year to meet growing demand for oil products. The refinery’s capacity is 15 million mt/year.

— Indian Oil Corp. plans to shut the vacuum gas oil hydrotreating unit at its refinery at Vadodara in January 2019 for 50 days to raise its capacity to 2.2 million mt/year, up 4.8% from the current capacity. It plans to hike the capacity of its continuous catalytic reformer at the same time to 780,000 mt/year, up 30% from the current capacity. IOC also plans to shut the diesel hydro-desulfurization unit for 48 days from May 15, during which period its capacity will be raised 24% to 2.2 million mt/year. IOC has a $2.3 billion expansion project in place for the Gujarat refinery to raise its overall capacity to 18 million mt/year by 2020, which will make it the state-owned company’s biggest facility.

— The Philippines’ Petron Corp. has been considering a plan to more than double capacity at its 88,000 b/d Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia by 2020 to 178,000 b/d.

— Japan’s Cosmo Energy Holdings plans to raise the capacity of the coker unit at its Sakai refinery to 31,000 b/d during a scheduled maintenance in 2019 as part of its response to the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 low sulfur mandate.

— Company officials said IOC’s $2.3 billion expansion project for the Gujarat refinery to raise its overall capacity to 18 million mt/year (361,000 b/d) by 2020 from the current capacity of 13.7 million mt/year was on schedule.

LAUNCHES

EXISTING ENTRIES

— Mongolia has launched construction of its first refinery, which will be financed by the Government of India, according to a media report. The refinery, which is planned to have a processing capacity of 1.5 million mt/year and would be Mongolia’s first, is due for completion in 2022.

— Petronas and Saudi Aramco have nearly completed construction of their new RAPID refinery and petrochemicals joint venture in southern Malaysia. The overall refinery complex and cracker was 96% complete while petrochemical facilities were 85% complete, the companies said in a statement in late May.

— A new HPCL project in Barmer, India, is due for completion by March 2023.

— India’s big refinery project in Maharashtra, being developed by state-owned IOC, HPCL and BPCL, will start up around 2022-23.

— Indonesia’s Pertamina has signed a joint venture agreement with Russia’s Rosneft to build and operate a proposed integrated 300,000 b/d greenfield refinery and petrochemical facility in Tuban, East Java, targeting completion in 2024.

— Sinopec has started construction works at its greenfield 10 million mt/year (200,000 b/d) Zhongke (Guangdong) Refining & Chemical complex, also known as Zhanjiang refinery. Sinopec had targeted completing construction of the entire complex by October 2019.
Source: Platts